Adventures in genealogy

Sepia Saturday: Where’s the Mistletoe?

This week’s Sepia Saturday has a kissing theme, and I have just the photo in my collection:

My parents on Christmas Day in 1955

I don’t see any mistletoe in the photograph, but it was Christmas day! My parents were not married yet – that would happen in about four months. I love the detail in the background of the photo – this was my paternal grandparents’ house. Note the 1950’s decor with the flowered wallpaper and flowered carpeting, upholstered wing chair with doilies on the arms, the steam radiator, and an ashtray stand next to the chair. I wish there were more photos from other parts of the living room! (There is another of my parents and aunt sitting together on the sofa – my mother must have had a change of clothes, because she is wearing a different dress but my father is dressed the same.) I also love the fabulous velvet dress on my Mom and the suit and tie on my Dad.

I would have to ask to be certain, but my guess is that my aunt took the photograph. She was 13 years old, and isn’t it just like a teenaged sister to annoy her big brother by taking a photo of him kissing his girl? Heck, I think I remember doing the same exact thing to my brother and his girlfriend about 25 years later when I was 13 and he was 21!

My little sister (nine years difference) continually harassed the girls that I might be dating (they and she went to an all-girls school in NYC). Once the whole family went to the movies with my brother and I having dates. My sister sat with my parents in front of us but she kept turning around, watching us and mouthing tsk tsk. She was not our favorite (and only) sister that evening!